Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Fake Steve Declares ‘Operation Chokehold’ on AT&T - Digits - WSJ

Fake Steve published a fictitious memo asking iPhone users to turn on data-intensive apps at noon Friday in an attempt to overwhelm AT&T’s network. “The idea is we’ll create a digital flash mob,” he wrote.

AT&T condemned the post. “We understand that fakesteve.net is primarily a satirical forum, but there is nothing amusing about advocating that customers attempt to deliberately degrade service on a network that provides critical communications services for more than 80 million customers,” a spokesman said in a statement. “We know that the vast majority of customers will see this action for what it is: an irresponsible and pointless scheme to draw attention to a blog.”

Operation Chokehold has gotten some traction, however, as blogs and tweets have spread the word.